“Having Liam was the greatest moment in Sean's life and it showed each time he looked at our son.

“In his final letter to me he wrote: ‘We made a vow ‘till death do us part’, but we know our love transcends that’.”

The couple married in July 2011 and moved to Britain three months later when he was deployed to RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk.

Capt Ruane, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, had served three times in Iraq and twice in Afghanistan, most recently last summer.

He died along with three other air crew members when their HH-60G Pave Hawk crashed into a nature reserve at Cley next the Sea, Norfolk, while taking part in a low-flying training exercise on Tuesday.

Among his many decorations were medals for flying a mission in Afghanistan under direct hostile enemy fire and for his part in supporting American Vice-President Joe Biden’s first visit to Iraq in very poor visibility.

Capt Ruane, his wife and son were photographed last year by Kristen Deem, a professional photographer whose husband is also an American military pilot, as part of a project to raise money for the That Others May Live Foundation, a charity that supports the families of US Air Force rescue crews who are killed or injured.